Yesterday the Ukrainian government declared an emergency and put the whole country under quarantine. All public meetings are cancelled (altho I hear that church does not count as a "public meeting"), all schools are cancelled, private or public (but the Kherson kindergartens are still working because the parents have to work and there would be no one home to watch the kids), and there are travel restrictions in place. For 3 weeks. I heard tonight that the border with Poland has been closed. There is a question now as to whether or not we will be able to fly out to London from Kiev in 2 weeks (we may not be able to travel to the airport from here). It's all up in the air.
Fortunately - God is sovereign and He is in control of this whole situation. If we are supposed to fly out of Ukraine on Nov. 17, then we will fly out. If we are not supposed to - then we won't. And if we get to London and we are stuck there - well, we are stuck there until we can leave. Such is life. Living in the knowledge that God is in control is wonderful. Sometimes it's a little breathless, but it's wonderful. :-)
~*~*~*~*~Busy day cooking up a storm.
- Made cupcakes for church tomorrow. We are celebrating "Thanksgiving".
= Made a grape dessert for team meeting tomorrow afternoon.
- Roasted peanuts and made peanut butter again.
= Peeled half a tikva (squash with flesh the same color as pumpkin) and made Pumpkin Peanut Soup for dinner.
Which reminds me, I need to look for my Thanksgiving tablecloth to take to church to cover the boards we are currently using for a table. I think it's in that box under the bed. Which is good, because after last year's Thanksgiving I decided I would just take it home to the States and let my daughter use it since I can't use it here. Sad. Sigh. But now I'm going to use it! Yea! This makes me feel inordinately happy.
~*~*~*~*~Talked to my mother earlier this evening. She chatted away like a house on fire. It's halloween in the States. They don't go out at night any more, so instead to help with the Fall Festival at the church, they are going this afternoon (their time) to string donuts for some kind of game the kids will play. I'm so thankful my parents are still as active as they are and as involved in the church as they are. I think they are much busier now than when they both worked full-time!
~*~*~*~*~Thinking of working full time - my mother worked at the Young Life International Service Center for 33 years. I worked there for at least 6 full years, possibly a bit more (I worked there 3 different times). Recently I've dreamed about different Young Life things several times. I loved working at the Service Center - both the work I did and the mission of Young Life.
Mom told me a week or so ago that now when you go there as a visitor, there is a guard and that you can't just go and see different people. This is since the shootings at the church in Colorado Springs and the Denver area a couple years ago. So very sad. A Christian organization has to protect it's employees this way.
I know our home church also has guards and/or people trained to look for problems and deal with them quickly. These are needed due to an incident that happened several years ago when a group of gays and lesbians unknowingly stationed themselves in several different places in the congregation, then during the worship service they stood up, took off their coats/jackets and had obscene t-shirts on, and threw condoms all over the place. They were quickly escorted out, but it was the beginning (for our church) of having some kind of protective services in place during worship service.
This greatly saddens me. The world is very, very sick. And we are supposed to admire these people? We are supposed to think of them as normal? Gag.
~*~*~*~*~I like playing FarmTown and FarmVille on facebook. I
like it. I like to play games and I don't know anyone here who wants to play games with me. Adult. Not adult games! An adult who likes to play games. Whew! Anyway, I play FarmTown with several other people, Americans and Ukrainians both. Often we chat as we work on each other's farms. I like that.
~*~*~*~*~I painted the little tiny hallway inbetween the livingroom and the bedroom. I forgot to take photos of it in the very beginning, but that's ok. First I stripped off the wallpaper and just let it be naked walls for probably 3 weeks because I was busy with other stuff.
Lucky me - I don't mind living in the middle of things partly finished. I think my stash of UFO's (unfinished objects) attests to that! I'm not sure Mel likes living in the middle of it, but he's been married to me for over 33 years....
I had a ladder in there and Mel moved it to get into the little pantry closet. In the process he broke the wall lamp glass shade. I cleaned it up. He moved the ladder again - and broke the bulb. I cleaned it up. Shattered glass everywhere. And if I get some strange mental deterioration everyone will know to blame AlGore and the environmentalists because I got mercury poisoned from the bulb. Lay that blame right where it belongs - at the feet of the head of the new world wide religion - Green!
A day or so later, I put the "primer" on that I bought a long time ago to do the hallway and then later the bedroom. Oh yes, the lovely clear liquid stuff that does absolutely nothing at all that I can see, but they tell me is needed before I paint the oil painted cement wall (actually, the paint under the wallpaper was flaking off, as it did in the bedroom, but not nearly as badly so I didn't scrape and scrape the wall - just brushed it down a couple times. Oh - lead poisoning, too - my brain has had it, I'm sure!)
So, the primer dried and I couldn't tell that there was anything on the wall - felt the same, looked the same, smelled different, tho, that is true.
We went to Nova Linea and bought a couple new rollers, a couple of the new handle things you put the rollers on, a bucket of colored paint, and a new lamp for the wall.
A day or two later, I put a coat of white latex on. Used a roller for the high stuff. A roller on a pole. That was very nice! I love Nova Linea - the new store that is like Home Depot! I can actually go in and TOUCH what I want to buy, hold it, look at it, decide with some kind of knowledge rather than looking at what is behind the counter and trying to guess what the teeny little tag says so I can ask for it. But I'm going off on a rant...
I was sad. The wall looked minty green after that first coat. So I knew I needed to put a second coat of the white on before I put a coat of the colored paint on. I let it dry overnight and painted that second coat of white.
After finishing, I almost came in here and started crying. The wall was still minty green in large sections. Primer and two coats of white latex later, it was still minty green.
Not one to give up in defeat - I said to myself - "oh what the heck - it's not our flat anyway! I'll just put the colored paint on and if it clashes with the minty green - so be it. We're leaving for 6 months anyway!!"
And I did. last night I put the pinkish tannish colored paint on. Well - it was supposed to be pinkish tannish but it's more like milked down pepto bismal. Again, not the color I wanted, but I like it none the less. In the morning light the reflection off the wooden floor makes it look a bit more tannish. :-)
If we are still in this flat when we come back next May/June - and if I don't like the color then, I'll repaint it. Maybe then ALL the minty green will be gone, gone, gone! (If you look really close, you can still kind of see it showing through the pink!)
I will also think of painting the door and door jambs when we come back. Right now it's too cold out to have the balcony door and windows open to get rid of oil paint paint fumes!
~*~*~*~*~Bed time! All for now!
